In the past week I’ve been home, I’ve gotten more sunshine & fresh air than I have in the past 8 months combined. I’ve spent very little time online, a whole lot of time with friends & even more time reading [I'm onto the 3rd Harry Potter book!].
Because my days are pretty dull [but lovely - lake/friends/bike riding/reading/working/family/running/etc] & I want to spend as little time as possible on the computer, I’m declaring this a summer vacation from blogging & Twitter!
I’ll let you know if anything really big or important happens, but until then: ciao!
After about 22 hours of travel, I arrived back in Ypsilanti around 5pm last night. Some quick unpacking was followed by coffee from the Ugly Mug, beer from the Corner Brewery & lots & lots & lots of hugs & catching up & giving of gifts. Today I went to the lake with my best friend, scrubbed the kitchen & bathroom, am about to go grocery shopping & then it’s off to more hang outs.
It’s been an absolute whirlwind, but being home is wonderful & every bit as good as I remembered.
Also – it rained today!!!!!!!!! It’s the first time I’ve seen rain in about 3 months & there was thunder & everything. Really, it was nothing less than magical.
That’s all for now – just wanted to give an update that I’m safe, sound & happy to be back.
Today I was supposed to go to Alexandria to get a tour of the library. I got to the train station at 8:30am, but there weren’t any trains until after 2pm, which would get me there too lately, so I had to cancel. I was definitely bummed, but at least I’ve been able to visit the library twice before [but never behind the scenes]. Lesson learned = buy train tickets in advance.
To make sure today had some sort of adventure, I decided to try to get home by tram. Heliopolis has a fairly extensive tram system, but I’ve never been able to find any information or map for it. It begins at the train station so I hopped on & had a great ride & it a cool way to experience the city. Although I didn’t make it all the way home & had to grab a cab eventually, it was well worth the 50 piasters [.09 US cents].
A week ago, my friend Dan & I went out to dinner, as he’s left for vacation in the States & won’t be back to Egypt until I’m gone. We ventured to Nasr City to try out El Borg – a four story restaurant famous for it’s fish from Port Said. We had tiger prawns, boori, a soup with a broth that was mostly butter & a variety of salads. It was a delicious meal! Then, walking out, I was taken by surprise by these giant pelicans! Definitely not native to Cairo, but hopefully well kept & fed by fish scraps.
Strange to think that this month would mark the end of our Peace Corps service if we had stayed in Bulgaria. But we didn’t stay. We can home & got jobs & started grad school & I fell apart & I pulled myself together & now I’m in Egypt. It’s crazy the places life takes you & the experiences you’ve been given.
I’ve been giving a lot of though to the rest of my life lately. It’s a little frightening. Here are my conclusions: I can’t live in a city, I need to have a garden, I need a place to put my hammock. Bonus points for being near water. A short commute would be nice too. We’ll see.
Just 3 days left! I’m already 85% packed, but I’ll find plenty of ways to fill my time.
This post has been started no less than 4 times.
I’m never good at times like these:
Tomorrow is my last day at AUC.
This time next week I’ll be back in Michigan.
As much as I’m very much looking forward to being home, it all makes me a little upset too.
A month of summer before school starts, complete with a music festival, a week in Florida, a camping trip [I hope], some weddings & lots of quality time with my husband, dog, cat, friends & family.
Instead of attempting to say anything profound, insightful or ridiculous, I’m instead leaving you with this music video. I’ve listened to Beruit a lot [A LOT] this summer & his voice will always remind me of long rides through the desert. Additionally, this is one of the most creative videos/performances I’ve ever seen, with beautiful acoustics.
Well it’s been a long time, long time now
Since I’ve seen you smile
And I’ll gamble away my fright
And I’ll gamble away my time
And in a year, a year or so
This will slip into the sea
Well it’s been a long time, long time now
Since I’ve seen you smile
I can’t wait to come home, see your smiles & give you hugs.
1 – I brought my camera to work yesterday & took pictures of the archive. You can see them all at the RBSCL Facebook page [become a fan while you're at it!]. I’ll be taking pictures of the library & reading room soon.
Not posted is an ultra nerdy picture of me in the archive, wearing my UM archives shirt. #irule [hash tag revolution!]
2 – The band that Joel has been playing with for a few years now is releasing their new album this weekend, but you can listen to the entire thing online for free right here!
3 – I’m debating if I should read the Harry Potter series this summer. In 2003, I read book 5, but nothing since & I really don’t remember what happened in them. And I think I maybe saw the first 2 movies? Everyone seems pretty into them & it’d give me a boost in my 50 books in 2010 challenge. Thoughts??
This forth thing is a bonus, since I don’t want to un-alliterate the title of this post.
